Meredith Page: Self proclaimed hero, kinda
by GenericName1
Summary: Meredith "Merry" Page was just an average girl who tried her best to overcome life's difficulties, but 'cause she is a demigod you know, it doesn't matter how hard she tries so oh well. After interrupting a cyclopses wedding her life gets changed forever, you know the usual, a few OC's because I felt creative, T to be safe, constructive criticism please, hope you enjoy my first fic
1. I give the bride a lift

**Well, here goes, if I see any spelling mistakes I'll try to fix them quickly but other then that if you read my humble story I hope you enjoy, maybe even tell a friend or two *wink wink cough cough*, so, hope you like it.**

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**Chapter 1: I give the bride a lift**

Hey, Im Meredith Page, some call me Merry, the rest call me a thief. Now, I know what your thinking, 'I know scum like you, trying to corrupt the younger generation', well, i'll have you know I am part of the younger generation so it must be someone else's fault. But, back to the reason I'm called a thief, whenever I'm around things go missing, mildly suspicious I know but I swear I wasn't actually doing it, they just appeared in my pockets.

When I met my Mother for the first time she said that I remind her of my Father with my blonde hair that tends to get in my face but I usually let it because people say I look like I'm going to steal everything they own. My ears aren't too big but they stick out a little in what I would consider cute but then again I am my greatest fan and their may be slight bias at times. The rest of my face was rather plain, average height, average everything for the most part and I could blend into a crowd of people with ease and you would have to look exceptionally hard if you wanted to find me when I didn't want to be found, which wasn't all to rare because I am always being accused of things that I had forgotten I'd done. But what stood out quite a bit to most people who saw me were my bright blue eyes that sparkled with mischief and misdeeds.

Today I'm wearing a red shirt with some faded writing, a denim jacket covered in various pockets for totally non-kleptomaniac purposes and a pair of jeans which were torn in "stylish" ways that made it look like I went through an army of possessed belt sanders. But, my new favourite item of clothing had to be the small golden charm around my wrist, I found it on a pile of clothing on the morning of my 15th birthday last week on top of a note, when I read I was definitely surprised to say the least, in fact, I have it in my pocket right now, ahem.

_To Merry  
Sup? I know that we have never met but I mean this in the least creepy way humanly possible, happy birthday, I know we have never met and I hate that it has to be that way for now but I have always watched over you, keeping the bad away when possible and intentionally accidentally ending up with those bullies that bothered you most prized possessions in my back pocket. So yet again I ask you not to take this in the "Oh gods I'm getting stalked" way, trust me I'm not... Kinda. But anyways, see ya in a bit (hopefully not too long).  
Love H, a.k.a Dad._

To say I was surprised and a little bit scared is an understatement, my first contact with my father in 15 years and he's a stalker, admittedly it could be worse but it's far from great, I was kinda hoping he would be rich, but alive is a good start. You see, my mother had to give me up at birth because she didn't have the money to look after me, I met up with her when I was twelve, when I was told I was meeting her I intended to chew her out and give her a piece of my mind. Yeah, instead I ended up having to comfort a women in her early thirties that looked like me as she cried all over my new shirt that I had brought, after she explained what happened with her and my father I was angry at him instead. The way I saw it he abused her trust and love, got her pregnant and then left after a few days and never saw her again. But even then, she defended him and after I questioned her as to why she said "I should be angry but I cant, without him I a) wouldn't have you and b) the world wouldn't have been graced with someone else almost as great as me" she grinned ear to ear with her eyes full of pride and tears and I couldn't help but turn back the exact same expression (tears as well). Now at this point there was no doubt that I was pretty much her mini me so if she could forgive him then I should because it would take a pretty damn good reason for either of us to forgive anybody. After more tears and stories of just how much better we were then others jokingly she asked me the question I dreaded.

"So Merry, I finally picked myself up, you can come home and live with me if you want, you would have to go to California but you would adjust quickly?" She tried to keep the pleading tone out but it slipped through but I already knew the answer, "Im sorry, I cant... Theres um someone who... I like... Only as a friend though... I mean he's okay... Kinda cute...uh cool I meant...ummm..." After Merry stopped looking at that particularly great looking spot on the ground I looked up and caught my mothers eyes they were overflowing with pride and happiness and she hugged me saying "You do what makes you happy so I can be happy". Now fast forwards to my current predicament instead of me having a heart to heart with my mum and things were going pretty crazy, lets just say, it was one of those days.

You know, one of **those** days, you know, the kind of day where you stub your toe on the only rock within 4 square miles (minor exaggeration), miss your bus, get an itch at the back of your mouth and get chased up some hill in the middle of nowhere following my crush, I mean best friend, who was babbling about gods and how he was going to kill someone called Annabeth for getting him to do this and running from 6 overly British cyclops. Oh wait, you've never had one of those days? Well, we have less in common than I thought, but anyways, overly British cyclops, what ever do you mean I hear you say, well.

For one, they all had top hats on, and by on I mean pulled down to their cheeks and slots for them to see ripped out, too be honest with you it was probably better then seeing there face and I was flattered to see they put so much effort into the disguise they utilised in their attempts to eat me alive. On top of that, well below technically, were their suits, they wore them with such finesse and style you could almost not see the fat hanging out of the sides of the suits in question, almost. I could see their greyish skin on their legs and arms as the trouser's were far too short and the sleeves were even worse but I couldn't deny their taste as they all wore black socks with similar Mr. Men like characters sown on. The only thing different with these was instead of the classic ensemble of Mr Happy and the like was Mr Kill-E Mr Stab-E and Bruce (dunno, don't ask). But any ways back to the reasonably more important reason story about why I was running from said cyclopses instead of my descriptions of their endless sex appeal... Or lack thereof, but anyways, prepare yourself for this tale of grandeur, let your pets out, lock the doors, turn off the oven and prepare yourself.

I may or may not have intentionally crashed a car accidentally into a wedding that was filled with cyclopses, why would I, a totally normal person who has never done any wrong (warning: sarcasm) do something like that you probably aren't saying? Well, it started when they said "A feast!" Mr. Kill-E roared, "Yes brother, that nearby school is filled to the brim with delectable mortal morsels" Mr. Stab-E bellowed back, this was followed by a series of hearty arrogant laughs which only happens once in a blue moon when a room full of British people discuss something that isn't rising petrol prices. To be honest with you I wasn't that bothered by this, me and my friend were already ditching school for the day and everybody else in that hell hole could get eaten for all I care (little harsh but oh well, ill live). So, there I am mulling over the pro's and con's of pointing the cyclopses in the right direction when one of them started sniffing the air giving the world a good mentally scarring view of his nose hairs as he tilted his head back for a better whiff. "Whatever is it Mr. Choke-E?" One of the others said curiously, "I can smell a demigod, child of Hermes, positively reeks gents" said the sniffer as the rest looked in the direction of his finger and therefore the direction of me.

Now, I know what your thinking, I gave them a long heroic speech about how I would most definitely not allow them to eat me and stood up tall and single handedly fought them of with wit and skills to match!

Yeah...no. I kinda squeaked out something about having a shower 20 minutes ago back in the dorm and ran for the nearest vehicle. It was a small medical van, thing, not an ambulance more a mix between an ambulance and a fed-ex van with a caduceus on the side and bonnet. You might be wondering why a fifteen year old girl would run for a car when in a danger, was I a renown road warrior who cruised the streets demanding and receiving respect from everyone, nope, some voice in my head told me to go to the car, for some reason when I pressed my hand to the car it unlocked so I climbed in. When I sat down I saw a post-it note and groaned, I hate reading, being dyslexic and ADHD meant I didn't have much love for it and I felt it thought the same of me. What startled me was it wasn't in english but it moved into place and I could just read it with no problem, but I'm not gonna lie what it wanted was pretty obvious with the doodle of a button being pushed and an arrow pointing at a button but nevertheless it simply read, "Press it, you know you wanna" , so I did, mostly because it was red and shiny and seemed like a great idea. After I pressed the previously mentioned button huge bronze spikes erupted from the front of the car and the voice in my head just said "10 points if you hit the bride" I laughed openly and muttered "brain, I know we have had our disagreements but you just reminded me why I keep you about" a broad grin spread across my face as I sped towards the cyclopses that had started looking at me in fear as they saw the light reflect of the long spikes.

I ploughed through a fence, across the road, into an oblivious kid and his dog (joking, jeez, I'd at least bib the horn before hand) and slammed into the bride and through the crowd of cyclopses onto the next street, the bride erupted into dust leaving behind a dirty veil caked with mud and... peanut butter? I got out of the car and marvelled at my work, the car had a light sprinkling of gold dust for some reason but that didn't stop the crazy grin on my face, I heard someone drop something behind me and saw who I was waiting for. I turned around and saw him, my best friend Tristan Lim, he had a military cut that he grows to above standard length for the style, a shirt that was frayed at the sleeves but he pulled the look off, some simple black cargo pants and... a very unusual, and very serious and shocked face as he looked at the car.

That was before I heard a male voice shout through my head "MERRY, STOP, GO BACK TO THE SCHOOL IT ISNT SAFE! RU- ARGH" and suddenly the voice cut out, I played it off as Tristan looked at me worried but I just smiled but a sudden sense of dread filled me and shook me to my very core.

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**So then, author here, hope you enjoy it, my first attempt, I kinda just winged it because I had a burst of inspiration and I'm never one for plenty of planning but I would happily like to see some constructive criticism (not flame, that stuff is just pointless and a waste of everyones time, if you don't like it I need a reason so I know what to improve) . I'll have some canon characters in there, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum and give my OC's a time to shine, oh and it will have what I hope to be a original twist, with any luck you wont see it coming but bear with me, I have a tendency to rant if you could't tell yet had read this far, incase you did theres a slight hint to the twist in here, have fun guys and gals if you here.**


	2. I didn't see that coming

**Okay! I have edited this chapter and redid the entirety of Tistans POV at the end, thanks to EIMR for the reviews which helped me to improve this, I will be slowly fixing all the other chapters that are up but it might be rathr slow because A) I'm rather lazy and B) I have been paying a lot of injustice lately so I will be pretty distracted, but anyways have good day and enjoy.**

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**Chapter 2: I didn't see that coming**

After Tristan lowered his arched eyebrow at my sudden disomfort he proceeded to look behind the car and then picked up his duffel bag that he had dropped and then he turned back to me, I looked into his face in an attempt to analyse his expression but my breath caught in my throat when I did, as always...sigh.

He had a face that was almost always smeared with a confident, not arrogant, smirk, his nose was at a dodgy angle after it had been broken for the fourth time, his brown hair didn't hide any of his face and overall he looked like the type of guy who would start a fight over who was more peaceful. However, I knew this guy and getting in fights was something he only did once or twice a week. But what made people want to just walk up to him and hit him upside his head was his eyes, small brown eyes that looked like they should be in a pig, these eyes made people doubt him and think they could get away with anything around him but I knew better.

You see, Tristan and I go back a little, back when I was eleven in my boarding school that I swear borrowed its interior decoration and teachers from a POW camp he was the only one who didn't mind getting near me. Now, I know what your thinking, who in their right mind wouldn't want to talk to you? It may have been because I had a bad habit of borrowing others possessions without asking. However, one day there I am playing with a toy I 'borrowed' in the playground when the bullies, you know the 'I should be removed from the gene-pool' type of people, came up and started pushing me around. At first they didn't seem to bad, I would pick things up and they would come over and take them, hell, they even payed for stuff a few times so I never questioned it, eventually though they realised that they could just take it from me, there wasn't much I could do other then stealing their pencil.

That then lead to one day where I'm getting pushed around when some brown hair kid who was slightly shorter then me walked up and pushed one of the bullies back, now, this might seem heroic but most there saw it as suicidal because the bullies were in their final year (they were 15-16) so they didn't care anymore. But this kid who was around the same age as me pushes them back and punches the bullies leader in the stomach so hard I could see vibrations, he was on his knees puking up his lunch, dinner and his hopes of having healthy internal organs. His two cronies walked up on him when this happened but I just looked on in awe when the kid kicked idiot A's leg out and then delivered a kick straight into his groin, I swear I could hear a faint popping sound when he did that, once idiot A was rolling on the floor he jumped at idiot B and grabbed him by the collar. As he held on to his collar the big guy tried to swing him off, as he started spinning I think I saw a faint flash of intelligence and sentience in Idiot B's eyes (two things I previously doubted the bullies had between them) and swung him into a brick wall. At this point a crowd had gathered and I could even see a few teachers looking out the windows at what was happening and I thought I saw money being passed around by a few. But as the kid was swung into the wall he put his legs behind him so he didn't slam into said wall and used the momentum to drag the bully into the wall head first instead, with a hollow thud. I was shocked and had tears in my eyes at what had happened, shocked that someone beat them and crying because someone helped me, me of all people. When I looked up I saw that it was the boy who joined the school a month back, it was Tristan. After that we became close friends, after I stole stuff we would share, he was the only person I didn't steal from, the only person I made friends with and we did everything together because he admitted that most people stayed away from him because he looked a little threatening, never mind the fact that he was pretty short. But anyways here was my friend and the only reason I didn't leave to live with my mum, I couldn't let him down, we were a team, friends amigo's, companions,compadres etc.

Now then, back to my heroic tale, Tristan for the most part got over his shock and instead turned deathly serious, he reached over and grabbed my hand and started dragging me in the direction he came from. "Hey Tristan! Hey! Where are we going why are you holding my hand and why were there cyclopses back there?!" I said as we jogged at a steady pace.  
"Im holding your hand because it's faster then explaining, those cyclopses were getting married and were going somewhere where you will be safe, remember when I said I had to go to a camp for the summer?" He asked to the very confused, flustered and secretly very happy that he was holding her hand Merry. "Oh that camp, why are we going there it isn't Summer, why don't we just call the police" I asked as we entered into a forest, "Because the police can't see them, look there is no time to explain, they are following us!" He shouted back. I looked behind and proceeded to pick up the pace a little as I saw the remaining 6 cyclopses follow me with lumbering footsteps, I let out a heroic squeal and started sprinting and so did Tristan.

A little ways ahead was a large hill with a tree on top and some golden shapes on it that I couldn't quite make out from the distance and the light bouncing off it, tristan then bellowed "HELP PLEASE! VERY ANGRY AND BRITISH CYLOPSE'S HEEEEEELP!" From the top of the hill and from behind a few surrounding trees some girls in silver jackets popped out and a balck haired one was dragging a kid who had a bruised eye, some nasty cuts across his face, very few teeth left in his mouth and three arrows in his groin area and was bleedin profusely. Along with them there was a, wait, is that, a centaur? "Thalia, I assure you he only wanted a highfive, he was not reaching for your 'womanly areas' I fear we may not have enough ambrosia or nectar to deal with this. Oh look some visitors and- oh dear, hunters, stop hitting the boy and help!" I could hear their argument (and dull thuds) clearly as they had walked out of trees relaxed, but when they saw us coming they tensed all had bows out and aimed above us at the monsters that had grown to around 12 feet tall in an instant while I hadn't been watching. A few arrows flew over our head but I could hear most of them cursing about using too many arrows 'practicing', figures they had ran out of ammo torturing some kid. Most of them proceeded to pull out hunting knives and tear down the hill where we met halfway, the centaur slowed and put his hand out towards me and said in a welcoming tone, "welcome to camp half-blood, once this problem has been dealt with we can get to proper introductions, but for now know that I am Chiron, trainer of heroes and activities director here" he said with a smile. I proceeded to say something intelligent along the lines of "You're a horse?" "Yes my child, now we-WATCH OUT!" He suddenly shouted as he pulled out a short sword from a scabbard held at the point where his horse and human halves join and blocked a club from hitting me and Tristan. After that moment things got pretty crazy, which is quite unfortunate for me seeing as it involved me and large quantities of pain.

Things seemed to slow down, I saw the cyclops swing a dagger around in a wide arc to hit Chiron, I grabbed an arrow from the quiver on his back, put a foot on his hind and pushed the arrow forwards into the heart of the cyclops when I got to the peak of my jump over Chiron bt pushed myself back off him, he squealed "Oh dear" before he disappeared in a puff of golden smoke. I slid off Chiron's back and turned to grin at Tristan when I heard a slow motion grunt of pain from Chiron as a silver arrow tore through the muscle on his right arm and come out dripping with his blood. However, I was prepared but that warning before rung in my head and I felt like I should have headed the advice but I was slightly prepared. Somehow things got slower, no, I got faster, I could see a white light around me and something else glowing overhead, I didn't know what was happening but I moved my head back to avoid the arrow but it wasnt enough...

Suddenly everything went back to normal speed then black. I screamed, a gut wrenching scream that made everyone turn their heads to me as I rolled on the floor holding my hands over her eyes, "Child! No... No no no... Thalia call Lady Artemis and get her to bring Apollo, now!" He roared, a minute later, unknown to me as I was still screaming, a large crowd had gathered and I could hear Chiron tell some group called the Apollo cabin to help me. Suddenly, I heard two high pitch noises off to my right and heard a stern voice call out "Thalia, I said only to use that in emergencies, why have you brought me here?" I felt Tristan's hand wrap around mine in a comforting gesture as I let him move my hands away from my face, I could hear someone gag in the crowd and Tristan mutter "Oh Hades..." Chiron' deep voice responded after I felt his gaze move away from me "Lady Artemis, Apollo, please help, the arrow that hit her went through me first, it had Centaur blood on it, please, she hasn't even made it into camp yet" I heard quiet muttering from who I assume to be Apollo and Artemis but they finished quickly and who I imagine to be Artemis said "I am afraid we cannot, ancient laws forbid us from intefering in the matters of mortals, Apollo here can give you some medicine and I might have a few herbs here and there for poisons but we cannot directly intefere, we are truly sorry, I -" slowly my vision returned, but not in my eyes, I was looking down on the scene, was I dead?

Somehow the light, dark and a bit of the colour drained from the ground and turned into three figures standing behind one who was uncerminiously crumpled on the ground hugging his chest and groaning. The three figures finished forming and were in the form of three women who were together trying to snip some thread, but were too bust shaking in anger and cursing under their breath, they looked into the air at the spot were I was floating. "Meredith Page, daughter of Hermes, you have your father to thank for what will happen to you! This _fool _broke ancient laws and has doomed you to be the next prophecy child, your death would have been the first in this new war and you could have been a martyr, you would have been given elysium for your unknowing sacrifice, it would have been painless! Go on you pitiful excuse for deities, you have incited the fates wrath and your punishment is this childs life, you took away her sight and and made it so she will die slowly in the place of another. But no, that is not enough, when this child is on the brink you will remember what you did messenger God and how you doomed Olympus! Go on pathetic Olympians, do what you are thinking, give her power, we shall see if this child can deny us, she will meet a similair fate to he if she think she can! We have seen it, the pieces will fall into place but she cannot be the hero!" They shouted in unison with their ancient voice that was laced with spite and anger, as I was observig in shock I saw a faint red glow then the fates left and my vision, or lack thereof, returned. Along with the pain.

**Tristan POV**

I looked at her eyes, I could faintly hear what the new visitors were saying but it wasn't a way to help Merry so I didn't care, I just held on to her hand and waited for someone to help. I looked back at her eyes, there was a groove cut out right from the front where the arrow went through, it had cut it's way through the bridge of her nose and the acidic centaur blood was eating away at her eyes. She had stopped screaming and I was especially confused when she began to scream again those things had gone, my anger grew as I realised why she had stopped screaming._ They didn't want any disturbance, it wasn't for her sake, why, why do these Gods and all powerful beings not help? They abandon us until were needed, they kill us just because we are someone elses kid, why cant they be human? _I heard talking behind me and I couldn't stand listening to Merry's screams any longer so I tuned into the conversation behind me, "Sis, if she is a new hero sh will need help, we need to or else Olympus could be destroyed" Apollo muttered, "Fine, it is Godly business if she is a hero connected to Olympus, we can't tell the council however, father will want her killed because she might destroy Olympus." They muttered more under their breath but I bit back my anger and moved out the way when Apollo knealt further back so I could hear and see what was happening. "Bah, the Fates weren't joking, her eyes just, wont work, theres no medical reason but everything connecting her eyes to the brain are still fine they just aren't transmitting information. I can fix her face and eyes so they look good as new but with the fates blocking of her eyes I can't fix them and it would be best to not anger them anymore." He said glumly but I didn't care, bile was rising in my throat, he was only helping because it involved him, they pretend that they are important but why do we need them if a medicine god wont do his job? Why do we need the Gods, all they do is hurt those who stand no chance and run to us when we are needed. "Hmm, if you cant return her sight back Apollo we may have to use more... drastic means to make her strong enough for whatever is coming ourway, you know what it is." Artemis said with a grimace, she then moved closer to Merry's now unconcious body and knelt down next to her along with Apollo and they both began to chant.

No... They wouldn't, they are... I looked as they finished giving their blessing and I barely stopped myself from tearing their heads off, what gave them the right to do THAT? "Urgh, I have never given even that much of my blessing to someone outside the hunt but I dont wish to do that again, but if it is for the good of Olympus then so be it, we must make sacrafices sometimes." Artemis said with a grimace and Apollo nodded "Yeah but we will have a new fan after she realizes how much we did for her" Apollo responded with a 'Aren't I the greatest thing to walk the planet Earth' grin, I looked around as everyone, including Chiron and even the hunters looked at them in surprise tinged with disgust.

But I snapped, I couldn't hold it in, the ground around me dried and cracked, the blood from various scratches down my arm after running here began to pour down my arms and past my wrist. It pooled up in the palm of my hand. An ethereal red glow surrounded me and skeletons cloaked in a similar red aura got into a firing line behind me and pointed their weapons at the twin archers. "You _Gods_ and you arrogance! How can you claim that YOU made a sacrifice when she is the one who has to risk her life for YOU! Even the hunters are looking at you two dishusted, what actual sacrifices have you made, tell me? You do nothing but claim that if it wasn't for you things would be far worse, the only reason you are here now is because you Olympians were the better of two evils!" I screamed, a few of the more confident campers and even hunters nodded and shouted their agreement. Artemis flicked her head in disgust around the assembled crowd while Apollo guiltily looked at the floor but Artemis had to open her mouth "You dare speak to a God like that? You ungrateful _boy_!" I sneered at flicked my wrist sending the blood in my hands out like much to the horror of Artemis and her hunters who rememberd this all too well and the skeletons at my side fired their weapons as well. Before they could connect and lacerate Artemis under a shower of bullets they stopped and fell and the blood returned to my hands, I looked confused until I saw Ares appear in a coloumn of flames that looked like an explosion full of shrapnel. "Calm down kid, you're tough, but your not that tough, yet. I'm just here to give the blind mouse on the floor my blessing so she can save our sorry asses" I was about to swing when he leant down and whispered in my ear "Shush, im doing this for myself and everyone else in the world, including you, you don't know what you are yet but you will thank me for this, you chose a good but awkward anchor kid" he said onimously yet quietly so only I could hear. He walked up to Merrys unconcious body and began to chant when he was done he looked at me with concern that looked very out of place on his face then grabbed the twins and flashed out. I was confused and angry but I let the blood pour out of my hands and let myself get led away by Chiron. Why did my father stop a fight, he is planning something and, it involves Merry.

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**Well, I hope you like it, with any luck this is an original idea on here, if not I swear I didn't steal the idea just great minds think alike, nevertheless I hope you enjoy, I tried to make the story flow well and not rush it but this is my first fic, so ave a good day anyone who read this far. Edit: Jeez, so many mistakes urgh, so embarassing, I hope I got all of them, if not tell me or if you aren't really bothered just ignore it.**


	3. Back to sleep and kidnapped by barbies

**Hey, still going, I'm in a creative mood so still writing, so far my humble little story has more views then I dared hope for with only having two chapters and around 4,000 words before this chapter. I intend to introduce one more OC (no idea how though) and then after a chapter or two at camp maybe with a capture the flag in there they can embark on a quest that they were going to inevitably receive. Well, I hope everyone who reads on enjoys my story.**

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**Chapter 3: Back to sleep and kidnapped by barbies**

**Merry POV**

After waking up I felt surprisingly great, I mean I'm pretty awesome but I felt like I could smell a mouse fart a mile off, in a good way you know. I moved my hand towards my eyes and felt that nothing had happened to them so I didn't understand why I couldn't see anything. I opened my mouth up a little bit and tried to speak but my mouth was too dry, someone passed me a glass of water and helped me to sit up, I nodded my thanks and brought the drink to my parched lips. When I had finished drinking and gave the glass back to someone I finally spoke up "What happened, my eyes there fine and what was all that about being blessed and child of who? My mum isn't called Hermes." I heard a few chuckles but to be honest I would rather have people laughing at me then dousing me in pity, I heard a horse trotting over to me and figured it was Chiron because he smelt like horse, tweed jackets and old spice. After explaining what happened while I was out and why I couldn't see he saw my confused expression then continued. "My dear, you know of the myths about Greek and Roman Gods yes? Well, they exist, they have for a while and still do, this is Camp Half-Blood, a camp for children who have one Godly parent roman or greek it doesn't matter. You were claimed by Hermes the Greek god of thieves, on top of that you were blessed by Artemis, Goddess of the hunt, Apollo, God of the sun, and Ares, God of war, while your here you will be trained, seeing as your Greek you will be trained in primarily Greek ways but you can be trained in a Roman style as well if you wish. Tristan, do you think you could take Merry to her cabin and give her a tour?" I could hear muscles being strained and a heartbeat slowing down and getting closer to me, it smelt of lynx, sweat and, blood? "Sure thing Chiron, I'll be happy to" Tristan's voice sounded relieved and happy as he walked up and grabbed my hand but as I stood up I heard another high pitch noise in front of me, "another god?" I mused in my head and suddenly Tristan stopped and bowed so I did the same, this new god smelt of aftershave, hair gel and packaging?, "Lord Hermes, what brings you here?" Said Chiron behind me, probably apprehensive over the amount of Gods interrupting little old me, I heard Hermes taking a few step forwards in my direction and felt him embrace me. "I'm so sorry, the Fates themselves prevented me from stopping that arrow, I'm so sorry this is the first time I've ever spoken to you but I couldn't, just trust me please, I know you've got Apollo's blessing so you know I'm not lying" he choked out through sobs. "Don't worry dad me and mum forgive you, but i'll break your wrist if you steal any more stuff from my pockets" I threatened while laughing, "Sorry, I steal when I'm nervous, force of habit" he chuckled as he finished. "Pass me your charm, if I knew that this would happen then I would have given you something else like a suit of armour, or goggles" he muttered as I pressed the charm into his hand. I could feel warmth come from his hand and what sounded like a post office, strange, then he slipped two individual charms onto my wrists, I jumped a little when I felt them move and heard them hiss, that was before I heard the voices in my head.  
"Hey kid, I'm Greg, you got anything to eat?" A voice from my left said straight into my head.  
"Greg shush, you're making us sound bad, jeez, anyways. Hello their Merry I'm Marlene but you can call me Marly, we are your bracelets if you couldn't tell"  
"Oh, hey there you two, umm no I haven't got anything to eat but, no offence, what do you guys do?" After a short pause in movement and conversation Marly spoke up and said "Well other than argue were companions, weapons and charms that take important or valuable items from people effortlessly if need be or if Greg's bored, which he usually is, say apotropaion and we will go into weapon mode, it means to avert evil incase you were wondering." I was speechless, so much had happened so I did the natural thing I said thanks dad and fainted, heroic I know, wait stop flattering me I cant help being so great, sigh.

**Tristan POV**

Well, today had been a strange day but oh well, after Merry passed out I said I'd take her to the infirmary while Hermes began talking to his children and passing on messages to some while stealing the drachmas in their pockets. I shook my head and sighed, with the only reason I went back to that school instead of staying at camp I could be happy, at last. When I looked at Merry or just thought about her I would calm down immensely, that ugly ball of hate shrunk and I felt like I could breathe as I held her bridal style and walking to the infirmary. Apparently the infirmary used to be in the big house at one time but they had built an actual infirmary which helped out a lot. As we walked I could see the Roman campers doing their training, tough and organised they looked like a machine but they knew their place and we knew ours. Apparently when they first arrived they kept challenging the Greeks to one on one combat but got beat each time, but when the group brawls started the Romans hammered us. So instead of gloating about one pointless thing to the other side everyone started training with each other and working on their weaknesses. From what I heard it was all because of one guy but I never heard the story all the way through, in fact all I heard was- "huh" Merry asked with her eyes opening but I looked sadly at her when I realised it was just out of habit, "Why are you carrying me Tristan?" After I set Merry back down on her feet I asked "How did you know it was me?", "I could smell you, Artemis blessing is working like a charm, I can smell and hear everything around me, but anyways, crazy day huh?" She explained, "Yeah, pretty crazy, you know your pretty special, some other campers are probably jealous of you you know, with all those powers you are gonna be pretty strong". "Woah, only the Gods could make make me better then I already was, but not gonna lie, they didn't have to make me blind, I know I rock sunglasses and all but 24/7 badassery might be too much for some too handle". I was impressed, she could lie well, it might have a little to do with Apollo's blessing or she just had inherited it from Hermes which makes equal sense being the God of thieves, lying could come in handy. But i could still sense it, I knew her too well, she only spoke like that when she was scared, so before I properly thought about it I leaned over and hugged her, it was in a friendly way but my heart fluttered a shockingly large amount. She grabbed onto my back and started crying heavily, drenching my shoulder, I didn't really care so long as she was happy, as she finally stopped 5 minutes later she stood up and straightened her clothes she gave me a nod in thanks and cleared her throat. "Why are you watching us?" Merry called out to the shadows behind us, I finally drew my weapon when I heard that we had been followed, I reached into my pocket and drew the small crimson torch out and pressed a button at the back, it turned into a large double bladed axe with a spike between each blade head. I gripped the weapon tightly after pulling Merry behind me and preparing myself, I almost gutted the person when they stepped out and I saw who they were but Merry put her hand on my shoulder in a comforting fashion.

"What do you want, Thalia!" I spat in the direction of Thalia and felt my blood boil, 'Its her fault, she hurt her, kill her, slowly... theres no one to stop you!' 'Don't you're better then that hear her out first then decide!' I growled and drew my lips back but Merry's other hand resting on my other shoulder pulled me out of it. "What do you want Thalia, don't you think you hurt Merry enough or do you wanna finish her off?" I said with so much venom and anger that she took a step back and paled considerably, she quickly recomposed herself and said meekly "I just wanted to apologise, I understand if you don't want to talk to me but I didn't mean to, I was aiming at the cyclops, he turned to dust before it hit and carried on going, I'm so sorry...so sorry..." As Thalia crumpled down onto her knees and started staring at the ground. Merry walked out from behind me and knelt down clumsily next to her not being able to see where she was going and patted her on the back slowly, the words that followed shocked me but reminded me why she was my friend. "Don't worry, I cant blame you for being a little jealous of how awesome I am, but in all seriousness you don't have to apologise, it was an accident, accidents happen and theres nothing we can do about it but keep on going. I'm happy that you were worried about me but you shouldn't be, I'll be fine, I've got Tristan and he will help me, you don't need to worry I'm far too brilliant to let something this small faze me" she said with a cheeky grin on the entire time. At this point I'd turned my axe back into a torch (what made me love gut-wrench even more was that it could still function like a normal torch with unlimited battery power) and walked up to Thalia, with a look of apprehension in her eyes she looked up and saw my hand outstretched towards her. "If she can forgive you then I guess I can as well, but if you do something like this to her again I wont hesitate to flay you alive and not even the Olympians could stop me, I swear that on the Styx" with eyes that showed I wasn't joking in the slightest and the thunder rumbling to confirm the promise she took my hand nervously as I lifted her and eyed me warily. "Did you just let a boy help you? What would your precious hunters say if they saw that hmmm?" I said loudly and she straightened up and glared at me "I didn't want to kill Merry's friend seeing as I owe her slightly but I wont hesitate again boy" she said angrily, "Thats better" I laughed out. Merry's ear perked up at the mention of owing her,and she turned slyly to Thalia and said "So, speaking of owing me, I didn't have time to pack and I need some clothes and other supplies..." I grinned crazily and added "And Thalia knows just the cabin that would have plenty of clothes and supplies hmm, if only someone here could go into the Aphrodite cabin, beg for some clothes and give them to Merry" I let out a evil laugh and looked at Thalia. She paled considerably, "Look I can kill monsters, hunt animals, Hades I can call down lightning and fly but that is just one step too far and your a nice girl Merry, please?" She pleaded. Merry sighed and said "I am a nice person..." Thalia looked up hopefully "But I reeeaaallly need some clothes and you do owe me quite a bit soooo, how does delivering them to the Hermes cabin as soon as possible sound?" She said with a malicious smile "Terrible..." Responded a glum Thalia as she walked in the direction of the Aphrodite and an idea flashed into my head as Thalia mumbled something about barbies and bodies being made up of 90% make up, as she was about to knock on the door to the cabin I ran up and shouted at the top of my lungs into the cabin window "THALIA WANTS A MAKE OVER!" Instantly the doors opened and she was dragged in by a handful of well manicured hands with a yelp and puff of makeup. After me and Merry erupted into laughter she hugged me again, I didn't even think I needed to hide my blush but then she said "Why are you blushing?" Startled I replied "How did you know?" Then mentally face palmed at what I said "So you aren't denying it hmm?" "Look there is a very good reason as to why I'm blushing and I shall tell in a while but first I need to give you the tour." "Ok..."

**Ares POV**

I stood there waiting in a darker part of Olympus in wait, then I saw him walk past so my arm shot out and grabbed him pulling him into the corner with no one noticing, I clamped my hand over his mouth and hissed in his ear "Hermes, me and you are gonna have a nice long chat and if you squeal I'll tell the council about what happened and then you know what'll happen, don't you or do you need reminding. She'll get killed"

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**Sup? Hows it going for you if you decide to read this, cant blame you of you don't I think I'm gonna try and get the next big OC in next chapter (no, Thalia wont be a main character). Oh, were any of you surprised and the Ares POV? I have a few ideas about what I'm going to to do with Tristan and Merry, if you wanna help with the creation of the next OC (huehuehue) them message or something and I'll think about but I think I will make the next one female, you know for that possible alternate love interest shenanigans. Well have a good day anyone who stumbled this deep into my ramblings, hopefully you'll continue reading my humble tale.**


	4. Authors notes, kinda Numero uno!

**Hey there chums, wassup, I felt like doing one of these authors notes because I have a few questions and things to say.**

**Q1) If you feel like having a little bit of input into the story message me and give me your idea, whether you've been planning for weeks or thought it up on the toilet 20 minutes ago it doesn't matter. (Between us I've been planning this in my head over a few weeks while on the toilet, who ever said men cant multi task? Too much? I'll be quiet now...)**

**Q2) Linked to the first question, I want to add another OC, if you can think of something good then tell me, the OC can be male, female, satyr, Roman, Greek whatever you can think of that can fit in.**

**Q3) Romance and stuff, should Tristan get with Merry? What about the next OC who will they be with? Not a clue, so your ideas would be received gratefully. (I MIGHT do another OC after that for the third big OC to get with or they will just be a side character that I don't have to think too much about)**

**Now then, I just feel like saying some stuff, uno: Do you think you guys could point me too some good points in other fic's that have good combat? I mean I can wing it and it shouldn't be too difficult but some research wouldn't hurt.**

**If you want to recommend some Greek/Roman monsters (I'm going to stick to those pantheons because they are what I'm familiar with) and any situations that you could encounter them in or if you want minor Greek/Roman Gods that you feel need their time to shine then go ahead and tell me. I might add more to this or copy and paste it in later with more questions as the story progresses but anyways, have a good day anyone who bothered to read this. **

**Oh yeah, before I forget I don't live in the U.S.A and I didn't pay attention in Geography so incase you were wondering why I never mentioned what city, town or whatever they were in before thats why. I will try and be not so inept in the future but I was writing on impulse without the slightest clue as to what I was doing.**


	5. Training requires blood, sweat and tears

**Hey, figured I would just write this up for the last push into the story, this is comprised of Merry's POV and a 3rd person POV. I hope you enjoy it, review if you want and enjoy your day if you read this bit. Oh yeah, I'm gonna stick this chapter up, call it a night then edit stuff in the morning so if you see any errors bear with, I'm sleeping. Okay, editing done, so many mistakes, maybe I shouldn't have uploaded it without checking first, I even got the chapter title wrong at first.  
**

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**Chapter 4: Training with blood, sweat and tears**

**Merry POV**

So then, after many a tearjerking moment and one Tristan in the infirmary after Thalia sent enough volts through him to kick start Cybertron I was on my own, for some reason as I walked around I could just... sense where I had to go, like I had already been there, only enough so I didn't walk into walls. People weren't getting in my way because after I had found the Hermes cabin a charming kid in there informed me he had stole a pair of sunglasses and one of those sticks you tap around places. He informed me they were from a Roman shop so I shouldn't feel bad and if I press a button on the back it sharpens into imperial gold which could give me the advantage of surprise in a battle, or more my luck I'll press it and stab myself in the foot accidentally. But anyways, back to me wandering through Camp Half-Blood, Lady Artemis still felt pretty bad about one of her lieutenants being the one to do something stupid to a maiden so she promised to train me for the last day that the hunters were here and told me to meet her in the sword fighting arena. When I got there all I could hear were the sound of women training, I could think up three reasons as to why:  
A) It was ladies night in the arena (unlikely).  
B) All the men were deathly quiet (more likely that they were all dead).  
C) The Hunter's simultaneously managed to scare off every male Greek, Roman, satyr and God (DING DING DING winner).  
Nevertheless, it was nice not to have the smell of testosterone filled guy sweat and overly masculine grunts of exertion (admittedly it did reek of hunter sweat and higher pitched grunts of exertion but thats beyond the point). I walked to the middle of the room ducking under people swinging about and throwing things on instinct, I walked past one person who by the sounds of it was hacking at a training dummy, listening to very loud rock music through headphones and underneath the odour of sweat was the smell of the ozone. "Sup' Thalia" " Sup, training with Lady Artemis?" "Yup, see ya" I smiled inwardly at how even after what happened we could have small talk, or at least not kill each other. You might be wondering how and why I can be so calm and not all to bothered about this whole being blind thing, but after Apollo's blessing I cam just feel like things are going to be better eventually, no matter how long it takes I will be happy so I just have to grit my teeth and keep going. As I walked towards the centre of the room I heard a young voice shout out in a cheerful tone that managed to sound demanding at the same time, "Merry, took up my offer on training I see" after walking a little closer I called back "But of course, learning about your blessing will be nice and Thalia almost killed my tour guide so I don't know what else to do, what will be doing for now though?" Upon hearing this Artemis's made a shocked cough but calmed herself down quickly then said back "Today, you will be learning about my blessing, you will probably find yourself adept at hunting knives, unfortunately most of my blessing is focused around archery and tracking so without sight they will be practically useless. However, the reason I gave you my blessing, a hunter needs excellent, hearing and smell, if you become proficient in these they can be almost as good as perfect sight. Also, you will be able to judge winds like you would in archery but I cannot think of a practical use of that, so those first two things are what we will be working on today. First, did you not have lunch like I told you?" I was confused but as I opened my mouth my stomach growled loudly so ,out of habit, I pretend to look at the ground to hide my blush, turns out that doesn't work nearly as well when you're blind but it doesn't hurt to try. Artemis laughed then continued as I nodded furiously "Good, use your smell and try to tell where in the arena I have hidden the food, once you have gathered one piece of food come back and bring it to me, don't worry I wont eat it." I nodded and tried to drown out everything that didn't matter but as my hunger grew after Artemis reminded me of not eating anything I kept losing concentration and let my mind wander, I figured if I just sat there long enough Artemis would just get bored and let me eat but a while later I was still there. The only difference being that I was hungrier, I was about to ask for help when Artemis spoke up. "I have blessed you with the senses of an expert hunter so think like one, all that matters is you and your prey, turn your hunger into determination, you frustration into experience and finally that determination and experience into a meal, do it, I have given you the abilities to do so." I nodded and I let myself relax, I thought like one of Artemis's hunters, confident in my abilities, confident in myself and confident that the I would find what I wanted. I smelt to my left and inhaled softly but deeply through my nose, lots of sweat from the hunters and female campers, hay from the dummies, polish for weapons and armour, cooked meat that smells like rabbit, a little blood from slight cuts...wait... Rabbit? I stood up and focused on that smell and walk towards it, it smelt delicious compared to everything I had eaten all day seeing as that consisted of a few Oreo's and a stick of gum so all in all not bad. I heard someone in the centre of the arena clap and the thud of something hitting the ground with what sounded like china rattling on top and could sense that Artemis just popped a table into existence with a bunch of plates on, I couldn't smell any extra food but nevertheless. I placed the rabbit on the plate in the centre and quickly smelt in a circle around me and went to collect what I needed to, some salad that had vinegar on it, a cake that smelt lovely and and a cold ham sandwich. I placed all of these on the table and the plates that felt like they went with the different foods I collected. As I was about to tear a bite out of the rabbit Artemis said sternly "What you just did was very impressive but that is not all, extend your hearing, you might not want to miss out on something someone is saying. I sighed an exasperated sigh but put all my attention into listening for what someone was saying, after listening for a few minutes I heard someone saying something very odd "Only the sandwich isn't poisoned" over and over again. I grumbled and picked up the sandwich but I had a feeling Artemis was smiling as she said "Good job Merry, very good job."

**1 month later still Merry POV**

I swung and ducked my body to the left and then the right as I dodged vicious diagonal swings and sharp thrusts aimed at my soft belly, once I finally got enough room to breathe I said "Apotropaion" clearly and was met with two hisses "_Yes m'aam_" from Greg and Marly as they slithered into my hands into two long batons studded with spikes. I dodged the strike sent at me and pressed towards my opponent getting too close for him to use his weapon, I began swing my batons and not letting him get a grip or proper footing while being so close that his large weapon was unwieldy and forcing him to be on the back foot. Unfortunately, I let my attention slip and a sneaky right hook hit me in the stomach, as I felt the wind leave my body and the blade point at the back of the blade I sighed. "You yield?" The voice said in a gruff manner "No stab me" I retorted sarcastically but squealed "I yield" as the blade started pushing forward slightly, "Not funny Tristan, I can never tell when you're joking" I moaned and ended it with a pout but he just laughed "I couldn't kill you even if I tried" he said in a dead serious tone as he helped me to my feet and warmth rushed to my face and ears. I didn't have enough time to squeal in delight as I held his hand before I heard a wolf whistle or two from the crowd that watched us spar. "Apotropaion" and the weapons slithered back around my wrists as snakes with a contented hiss, "If I hear you guys do that again I wont tell Greg to stop taking your stuff!" The campers looked confused until they realised that their pockets were a lot lighter but Merry and Tristan had already gotten out of the arena while no one noticed and went to spend the money Merry 'found' at a coffee shop. We talked about our day and just hung out for a few hours with nothing else to do, I didn't have to do any duties because of my blindness (I still haven't told them that I am more then capable to do duties but thats a minor detail) and Tristan had bet on enough duels with overconfident newbie campers so he didn't have any for the rest of the week. "You know, you should stop going easy on me" I muttered, this had been a difficult topic the past few days but I knew I was right, Tristan didn't try, I knew he could beat me with no problem and if he wasn't trying his hardest I would either get over confident or just not be prepared. Everyone went easy on me so I could beat them easily (Tristan going easy on someone puts a tank going easy to shame let alone any other campers) but everyone still thought I was frail and weak and didn't know how to look after myself. I heard wood splintering and I could imagine Tristan crushing the table in his grip when I said this but I didn't back down. "What if I get attacked and I'm not prepared, you are naturally skilled at it, I only have your fathers blessing, it isn't the same and I cant rely on it all the time. The blessing makes me good but I have to be better" I whispered. He let out a deep breath and quickly said "What if I hurt you by accident, you know I get angry easily I might hurt you, I might get lost in exerting myself and not stop, you haven't seen what I can do, I could kill you and not realise, I wont do it, you know I would die for you without a moments hesitation no matter the cost but this is one thing I wont do for you." I was shocked, I was happy he cared enough about me to force himself to do something I know he finds mind numbingly boring but I have heard the story, that story gives me the chills now just thinking about it.

**Merry's memory 3rd person POV**

Tristan was sparring with another camper two weeks after arriving and three days after being claimed by his father, he was easily destroying the poor kid he was against, he tried to hold back but it was still overwhelming him. People said he looked really angry at the time and when a bunch of people started having an argument at the entrance to the arena everyone except Tristan looked over. The Hunters had arrived and were telling the males in there to get out that they weren't training with a 'bunch of pigs' even though they had never seen most of them in their lives. But, Tristan just moved over to a dummy in the corner, he decided to practice with the axe he got when he was claimed, gut-wrench, he stabbed, swung and decapitated dummy after dummy getting angrier at how tired his arms felt after only two hours practicing. As he set up a new dummy the hunters had just finished their 30 minute long argument and there were a few 'pigs' going to get arrows removed from their rears when they saw Tristan. A few of the younger Hunters said that they should just leave him, he left them alone and was even using the repaired and lower quality dummies that most hunters refused to use but no. According to the two members of the Hermes cabin that were watching this all go down from the stands (they were called the stools or something like that) when the hunter Phoebe and Thalia walked over to him to tell him to leave he ignored them so they just moved back and started firing arrows at his axe and the dummy so it messed up his practice. They were both laughing loudly and plenty of other hunters had joined and the area around him was covered in arrows all had been intentionally pulled an inch of target but Thalia took it a step too far, she didn't pull back one shot and it made a small cut on one of his fingers on the hand that was wrapped around his axe handle. The hunters just laughed but the blood poured down the axe (an unnatural amount of blood pouring down at unnatural speeds) towards the blades and his veins glowed red, the hunters finally fell silent as his veins and body glowed red, the entire arena suddenly dried even more the ground cracked and any blood on the ground moved towards him, he looked up and his eyes weren't eyes they were blood red hell fire that scorched their place into the Hunter's minds, he raised his axe and pointed the large spike at the end to Thalia. The lieutenant of the Hunt couldn't be seen to back down from a challenge, especially of it was from a boy but this was different, his aura was made up of pure power fuelled anger. But of course Phoebe spoke up and said "hah boy, you're gonna get killed, Thalia's our best fighter!" Thalia sent her a glare to shut her up and grudgingly stepped forward. As she stepped forwards she glowed silver and suddenly said, as if responding to someone "Thank you Milady, I wont let you down." It was over before it began. Tristan swung his axe and the blood that had pooled in the grooves on the blades swung out like whips, 8 of them, ahead of the axe and where each one hit Thalia erupted in cuts in the area they hit up the left side of her body, as she recoiled the blade was just out of reach to cut off her arm but fortunately it only cut her arm down to the bone before the spike between the blades shattered the bone below the cut and sent chunks of it out of the open wound. Thalia looked up in fear as she let out a blood curdling scream but this time he swung left to right so she was forced to duck under the blade but the blood whips lacerated the Hunters faces behind her and the arena erupted in screams before Tristan's boot delivered a quick kick to Thalia's face so hard her scream was drowned out by the crunching noises of her nose being shattered along with her cheek bones from the force of the kick before she became unconscious only managing short ragged breaths. As he raised his axe to lop her head off a flash of crimson appeared behind him and grabbed the axe handle and wrenched it from his grasp, without even turning Tristan raised his foot to curb stomp Thalia instead but was pushed away by the man. "Look kid, you are in very, very deep trouble right now, Artemis will be here in a second, think of 'her' okay and calm down, cmon kid you can do it" Ares muttered almost to himself but Tristan's eyes just burned brighter and turned a deeper shade of red, the type of blood that had been spilt weeks before but no one wanted to clean up, and Ares sighed and smacked him in the teeth knocking him unconscious. Suddenly a blinding silver light appeared with a loud scream. Ares was shocked at how bad Artemis looked if the expression that the Hermes kids saw was anything to go by, her hair was wrapped around her face however instead of a clean auburn it normally was it was dirty and clung to her face that was dripping with sweat. Her eyes looked like the eyes of a rabbit in a trap as the hunter walked up with the knife ready, her mouth was open in a mind shattering scream and her face and body were covered in deep cuts just like her hunters. The Hermes kids told us that after the Roman and Greek form of the Gods merged Artemis's physical condition represented the hunt much more then before. Her clothes were torn and blood could be seem underneath the thick jacket her and all her hunters wore. "Let me kill him, slowly, so slowly, he deserves it, look what he did!" She screamed psychotically at the top of her voice spit flying and hitting Ares even though they were a good 4 feet apart. "Artemis calm down, I'm not going to let you touch him and you know that, just listen, please." Artemis was shocked, Ares never said please, she had never heard him say it so she knew it was important, she nodded and he walked over and whispered in her ear, as he pulled away she hissed and dragged her hand through her hair "not again... This is very bad, we should take him to Olympus-" "NO!" Ares roared "I messed up the first time but I know better this time, I can guide him, trust me." Artemis considered this but shook her head "You know what the other one did, he needs to be taken to Olympus!" At this point everyone but Tristan had woken up and were staring between the two (most had fainted through blood loss) Ares spat at the ground and growled "If you take him to Olympus so he can die then I will curse your entire hunt till the day I fade that their blades shall be too heavy in combat and arrows always dulled when needed, I swear that on the Styx!"He stared in Artemis's eyes but she waited until all could hear the thunder rumbled and shook her head again "Fine", Artemis snarled and flashed her and the hunt out. Ares turned and picked up Tristan and flashed out as well.

**End of memory still Merry POV**

I closed my eyes deep in thought and said across the table "Ok, I'm happy that you don't want to hurt me so I guess that we need to find someone to spar with me, I need your training but I need to see how I measure up against someone who doesn't hold back. By the way, if you say you wont hurt me why did you punch me?" After a brief silence he whispered back "I punched you?"

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**So, there we go, a bit of combat at last and a little longer then normal, Tristan might seem a bit op but don't worry I have plans, feel free to review and tell me what you thought of it, too much or too little, are you a Thalia fanboy/fangirl tell me and I can determine how to proceed, remember to favourite if you want to keep up with the story. Well, I just went through and fixed the mistakes and I'm impressed I can do something so poorly, but nevertheless, have a good day.**


	6. Ultors Assemble

**Chapter 5: Ultors assemble**

**Tristan POV 1 week after precious chapter**

I had relented after days of Merry following me around moaning at me and agreed until we found someone to train with Merry, I was sat in the stand sharpening my axe, everyone within three or four chairs around me moved away so I rested my feet on the chair in front of me and retracted the axe once I was done. I watched amused as I realised that the problem was quickly becoming Merry was too good, she was outclassing plenty of trained fighters, Greek and Roman style alike without breaking a sweat. I was still confused at her weapon of choice, two sticks would be far from my first choice but most of her fights ended up with her opponent on the ground clutching a rib or one of their arms that she accidentally broke. She was efficient and I was the only one out of the people who sparred with that could last extended periods of time so far, she hasn't beat me yet and I intend to keep it that way, it wouldn't do any good to my reputation if I was beat by a blind girl who had only been there for a month. I looked as she disarmed the poor guy she was against, the left baton that was engraved with the name Greg turned back into a snake and slithered up his weapon and kept going until it was wrapped around his neck and she said confidently "Yield?" I laughed as he let out a girlish squeal that sounded like a yes as soon as the snake started applying pressure around his neck. Once Merry stopped laughing she said the command word apotropaion and the baton in her right hand slithered back around her wrist while the other one disappeared in a puff of smoke and back on her wrist, both in charm bracelet form. I jumped from the crowd and the guy she just beat ran away, for a guy who had been here for three years he ran away pretty quickly, I turned to Merry and said "C'mon, time to train with those hunting knives" she nodded her response quickly and pulled out two twin, silver knives from their sheathes at the side and held them in her hands with one pointing back and the other forwards. Most people would prefer to hold both backwards from what I have seen of knife users but Merry insisted on being special and using a technique I hadn't trained in but she seemed to do it naturally. She got the knives from Thalia when her and the Hunters last visited because they still felt a little guilty about the whole blinding her thing. Hunter visits are always awkward for me, after the whole almost killing all of them incident I had to apologise to Artemis, who for some reason didn't turn me into a small furry animal, and avoid all of the looks of raw terror from Hunters who had been around when that incident occurred. But, Merry insisted on talking to Thalia (for reasons I don't understand and never will they became friends) so I would be dragged along with them, most campers looked at me like I was crazy, I'm pretty sure a few even prayed for me, but the visits there were short because Merry could sense I was uncomfortable. But, back to the arena, I told Merry we would be doing special training, the only reason I told her to use the knives was because her snakes tell her to do things that mess up training and we needed to concentrate. I pulled out a small pencil and rubbed the rubber and it elongated into a large stick with small holes running up and down it, I swung it around a few times till I got the right speed for a loud whistling noise to be heard and then I spoke up "Remember Merry, just block it, don't disarm, you'll probably break it if you try." After Merry gave a small nod we started. During the training after every ten or so blocks I would plug some holes so that the noise would change pitch and get quieter, eventually we moved up to a blunted sword and eventually a normal sharp one. I could see the concerned look on Chiron's face as I swung the sword as hard as I could, little did anyone know (not even Merry) except me was that the blade would pass through anyone who I did not deem as an enemy so I didn't worry about harming Merry. After a few hours of this I didn't land a single blow on here, I even sneaked in a quiet thrust as the last hit but she parried and disarmed the sword in a blink of the eye. "You know, you did far better then anyone else in here could have hoped to do, that 6th sense from Apollo works wonders by the looks of it" I told her with a big grin on my face as I threw her a bottle of water, it still, surprised me immensely when she caught it. After she took a large swig from the bottle she looked turned her head in my direction before she sat down, I began to look at her and mentally compare her to what she was like not even two months ago. Her hair was shorter and more practical, it was tucked behind her ears so she had as few obstructions to her hearing as possible, she had her head held up high instead of looking at the ground like she did at school (speaking of school Chiron told the school that we had stole a car and hit someone crippling them, which became the excuse of about 3 satyrs picking up demigods in the city, and we were in a juvenile hall for troubled children). Her face looked like it had matured a lot and that she wasn't just a school yard pickpocket but a veteran thief, I'm not completely convinced that is a good thing, but at the same time she had become a lot more reliable and didn't use her shield of arrogance nearly as much as she did which I liked. Her fashion sense hadn't changed much but I could see the muscles that had formed after the shock to her body of her intense training every day, instead of just looking thin and generally average she was now athletic and looked like a sprinter. I on the other hand have only succeeded in getting taller and my skin that is normally on the slightly darker side to be tanned heavily from training, other then when I'm training I usually wear dark and heavy clothes so that people cannot see my muscles and get more information then I want them to before a fight. As me and Merry were preparing to leave we heard a call from across the arena "Wait! Wait! Your Merry right? I heard that you beat a bunch of people and I want to try my luck." He said as he came to a stop nearby panting, I looked at him and said "Who are you?" He turned to me, stuck his hand out and said "I'm Nathan Brunt, son of Ceres, I have been here for two years and and people say that I am the best swordsman at camp!" He finished with his chest poked out, I for one wasn't impressed, he looked to be 16 with Black hair and bright green eyes like the rest of Ceres/Demeter kids, he was reasonably tall, after my sudden growth spurt I didn't have to strain my neck but I needed to adjust my eyes slightly. He wore a tight blue shirt that showed of the thin layer of muscles, I had long since stopped judging people by muscles, and a pair of tight black jeans and hay coloured converses. I arched my eyebrow but shook his hand and turned to Merry, "You wanna fight him" she gave a quick nod and gave the command to her snakes and they turned into her studded celestial bronze batons and took up a ready stance. I turned to Nathan and he had took a sharpener from his pocket and rubbed then rubbed it so it elongated into a double edged sword about three foot long with the middle gone so it looked like a cross between a sword and a potato peeler. He gripped it in both hands and tensed then nodded to me, I moved out of the way and picked up anything on the floor and shouted "Start!"

**Merry POV**

I braced myself and concentrated I had a feeling that I should move to the left as I heard the noise of a blade approaching, the noise it made was strange like it was going around two things but that didn't matter so I took a small step to the left and pressed towards Nathan so I could get inside his defence. I stepped up close to him and brought the baton in my right hand to the ribs on his left with a quick flick of my wrist while the left baton I brought down diagonally to his right shoulder but he twisted out of it and it hit his back instead. He let out a particularly dirty curse word in ancient greek before I felt him get ready again. He swung the blade horizontally but as I went to block it he stopped and threw his left hand upwards in a quick uppercut to my jaw, as it connected I tried to step back but he had moved his foot into position behind me and I tripped over as the blow connected. I gathered my thoughts as I fell and could sense him getting ready to move the blade to my throat so I twisted my body and began to roll as soon as I hit the ground and threw some sand up at Nathan. I stood up quickly and didn't even have to move as Nathan swung wildly and missed because of my sand-attack, I charged towards him and swung my baton into his stomach at the same speed that has broken others arms or ribs. Nathan however was used to high pressure situations and swung his head down and head butted me and pressed the blade to my neck as I hit the ground dazed "Yield?" I quickly groaned "I yield" while rubbing my head in the spot he hit and told Greg and Marly to come back and held my hand up. I felt myself being pulled off of the ground and had to steady myself on Tristan, I was still a bit dazed from the head-butt, who walked over with some bottles of water for me and Nathan. He said to me "Well, I think we found someone who isn't afraid to hold back and offers a good challenge, that was a good fight you two." I nodded and said "It's good to know my training isn't going to waste. Hey Nathan, do you want to come to lunch with us?" He seemed to mull it over a little then said "Sure, if you're okay with me, truth be told I don't really have any 'friends' I don't exactly fit in back at the Ceres/Demeter cabin because I do something that isn't gardening and everyone else looks at me like a teacher for some reason so they tend to suck up. So yeah, it'll be a nice change." He said happily and as we were about to go the dining pavilion Tristan interrupted and said "Look, I'm not going anywhere with you two right now, you both stink of sweat so go have a shower and I'm going to go pour air freshener up my nose." My face flushed and nodded and ran off to the Hermes cabin, I didn't hear Tristan or Nathan follow me but they are probably having a talk about swords or whatever two self proclaimed alpha's talk about. I smiled as I realised we had a small group now, we just needed a name, how about 'The Ultor's', too cheesy? Fine...

**Nathan POV**

I was about to walk off and have a shower when Tristan grabbed my arm and signalled towards the side of the arena, when we got there he sat on a bench and motioned for me to do the same, not knowing what else to do and not wanting to upset my new friend I did. "Dude, I don't want to burden you with anything but something big is going to happen soon, he visited me in my dream the other night and said I'm going to meet someone vital to what's going to happen, I can only assume that means you, I don't know when that is going to happen and I need you to train and spar with Merry as best as you can. You saw her, don't hold back at all, fight like you could die because from what I could tell about my Dads message is that me, Merry and the person he mentioned, probably you, will be soon. If you want to get out now it'll be fine, I'll just tell Merry we had a argument and you didn't want to hang out." He said, he didn't say it threateningly or anything it was more of this is what will happen tone, no room for arguments. I turned to him and said "Don't worry about me and Merry is already really good, I can help her along if you want and don't worry about any troubles we might face, that comes with being us right?" Tristan smiled as if that was the right answer, he got up and walked away so I did the same ready to meet up with them at lunch.

**Later that day, still Nathan's POV**

Me, Merry and Tristan sat at a small table near the edge of the room eating and talking about small things, gossip ,which Merry picked up faster the Aphrodite and Venus kids combined (because of her insane hearing) and Capture the flag tomorrow, Merry would be participating for the first time so me and Tristan were going over the basics. After a few more minutes Merry asked "Did the Romans and Greeks always get along at camp?" I turned to her and said, actually they almost killed each other every time the camps met, I can tell you why they get along now if you want?" Merry nodded and even Tristan looked intrigued, I have no idea how they managed to have been at camp for more then a day and not know the story but it was fun to tell, "Well, there was a group of people, Greek and Roman, who went on a incredibly dangerous quest and managed to unite the two camps. I'll have to tell you from the beginning but the most important character was a Greek kid, remember this name now because he is almost as famous as Zeus around here, his name was Percy Jackson, and him and his friends managed to complete that incredibly dangerous quest and unite the camps not too long ago, thus saving the world in the process." I said, "How long ago?" Merry asked intrigued, I quickly responded "23 years ago".


	7. Capture the flag

**Sorry for the unoriginal chapter title, couldn't really think of anything witty and it tells you what you need to know, well anyways, good day all.**

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**Chapter 6: Capture the flag**

**Merry POV**

"Wait wait wait, we have these sharpened swords and powers and stuff, and we ARENT allowed to maim? That seems difficult" I asked, Tristan and Nathan were helping me with my armour as I asked questions as soon as the previous one was answered, there were only 10 minutes left until capture the flag started so I was getting pretty nervous but it was washed away and replaced with eagerness, I had forgotten that Ares blessing could do that. Tristan said "Of course you aren't allowed to maim, you knock them out with the hilt of your weapons or with anything so lang as it doesn't leave lasting damage no one is too bothered, like Nathan showed you yesterday." Oh, that isn't good, "What? Nathan never showed me that" I said pretending to be alarmed, Tristan stopped strapping on pieces of armour and said quietly "So what your telling me is, you only know how to kill stuff? Nathan could you explain why you didn't show Merry?" I could smell the fear on Nathan as he blurted out "I asked her and she said you already had, she sounded really convincing, c'mon Merry tell him, he wont kill you." I paled at the thought of telling Tristan I lied, I'm blind and he still intimidated me, "Ummm, Well Tristan... um... the safety stuff was really boring so I may or may not have used Apollo's blessing to ummm 'twist the truth' I mean, you never killed me when we sparred so you kinda showed me how ummm." I was really nervous because Tristan was so quiet I couldn't hear his breath, "Tristan my bestest and kindest friend in the whole wide world are you okay?" I asked pleadingly when he suddenly erupted in laughter, me and Nathan leapt back in shock and felt chills run down our back when he said "I'll tell Chiron to prepare some shrouds then, what cabins are we against again?" My legs were shaking as I replied nervously "Poseidon/Neptune, Hades/Pluto, Aphrodite/Venus, Athena/Minerva and a bunch of Minor Gods cabins", he said to us with a psychotic tinge to his voice "Why are you guys so scared? Are you scared of me?" I heard his voice get slightly louder as he said that which meant he had turned around and then a rather un heroic whimper from Nathan confirmed that. As I heard him leave I let out a breath, Tristan can be terrifying at times, I took a deep breath in and nearly choked as I turned to Nathan and almost shouted "Oh my Gods Nathan? Did you just-?" I couldn't believe it, I knew Nathan was scared but really? "N-No, I gotta go change, I'll meet you at the forest!", I laughed as he ran out of the door and finished strapping on my armour. I thought about Tristan a bit, he changed quite a bit a week or two ago, he became a lot more serious and that made him a lot scarier. Nathan seemed a little more agitated when I met up with him yesterday and was hiding it well but he was so different to the laid back guy when we first met, I sparred with him the rest of the day after lunch and him telling us about the story of the camps merging. He took it very serious and kept correcting my mistakes, even tiny ones, and urging me to hit harder, swing faster and move quicker, I don't know whether that was just him in teacher mode but I doubted it, he seemed nervous and a little worried, and I don't think it was about capture the flag. Speaking of capture the flag the conch horn was blown so I started a steady jog towards the woods tapping my cane on the ground, trying to make a tune more then guiding myself along and kept switching it from sharp to dull mode. I never really used it but the weapon was lethal, as I predicted I accidentally stabbed myself through the foot effortlessly a few days after getting it. When I went to the infirmary they said that the wound was practically a perfect circle, the damn thing was razor sharp so I couldn't really practice with it but it might come in handy one of these days.

I arrived at the edge of the woods and Nathan called me over, I could smell clean underwear and lot's of deodorant and aftershave, "Change of clothes?" I inquired with a mischievous smirk on my face "I'll do anything you say just don't tell anyone, I'm begging you, pleeeasassee..." I smirked and said "Fine, but it will cost you" he instantly pushed a large amount of drachmas into my outstretched hand and then he pressed a button of a shirt into my hand. I frowned and said "You can keep the button if you want, my shirts are fine" he closed my hand around the button (I had already pocketed the drachmas) and he said "Rub the button" I frowned expecting it to just be some kind of innuendo but did as he said. I let out a small gasp as a leather strap wrapped around my hand and a metal shield sprouted, I rubbed my hand against it and felt that it was decorated like a flower, the cold metal like petals, they felt soft like real petals. Worried about whether it would be able to protect me I slammed my hand against it and instantly regretted it, it had hardened, I rubbed my hand around it again before the petals softened and felt that they were as sharp as razor blades. Nathan said "Watch out, theres like 5 different ways to kill yourself on that thing, my Mum gave it to me and she doesn't do things by half." He said cheerily as if reminiscing about it. "I couldn't take it from you if your Mum gave it to you so here, take it back, if I knew how to take it off that is" I said as I tried to wrench it from my arm but failed, "Trust me, I just have a sense that you will need it way more then me, but on to slightly cheerier things, just imagine what you want it to be, because the previous owner, me, passed it on to you willingly you can decide its form when you aren't using it and how to activate it once so choose carefully." I thought about it and figured I would need something that I could have at hand constantly, I thought about a watch but from what Tristan told me it could only function as what it was disguised as if that object was it's original hidden form so I figured I should do something that was practical but static. It started warming up (and more then likely glowing like 99% of objects made by the gods) and it was in the form of a black leather glove by the feel of it, just like I imagined, it was warm and the type of thing that people wore when committing a heist in movies. I closed my hand and squeezed focusing on it becoming the shield and the leather peeled back and sprouted then grew like a flower in one of those documentaries. After I turned it back to it's glove form I jumped up and then hugged Nathan and jumped up and down squealing thank you over and over again but I stopped when I realised something, "A shield doesn't really go with a baton or a knife, besides Greg would get grumpy if I only used Marly, what should I do, go fetch a sword?" Before Nathan could respond Marly hissed at me _"Hold your wrists together so we touch then say apotropaion, you'll see"_ I moved my wrists together and said "Okay, apotropaion!" The snakes quickly coiled together and elongated into a large celestial bronze studded stick that looked like two snakes skins wrapped around each other, only their heads were still a snake head but they positioned themselves together and formed a spear head in the shape of a two snakes but at the same time it looked extremely sharp. I squeezed my hand and my shield grew on my hand into a beautiful flower with imperial gold edges that were like razors and light bounced of my shiny polished bronze armour and my shades made me look positively badass. Wait? How can I see? _"We though we would show you how cool we look, not bad huh, oh yeah, figured we would show you your friend as well, we would do this more for you but it is really draining so save it for important occasions"_ Greg said in an almost (almost) serious tone as I looked at Nathan, Tristan described him pretty accurately. Suddenly the image cut out and I was plunged back into darkness. I let out a sigh but straightened up and nodded another thanks at Nathan as I heard Tristan walk up behind us, "Get ready guys, we got our orders, c'mon follow me, nice shield and spear Merry, you'll have to tell me where you got them later, you look pretty badass" I nodded and followed after him into my first game of capture the flag.

**Tristan POV**

I saw Merry and her new gear, I was pretty jealous to be honest, they both looked awesome, even the flower shield, I could see how sharp it was and I hoped I would never have to experience it. But I was more jealous at how Nathan gave her something and all I had done for her was pretty much beat her up, but I swallowed it down and instead gave a nod of thanks to Nathan after seeing it. We were told to stand by the creek and hold off anyone trying to sneak through to the flag using the blind spot of the 4 fortifications built vision. Capture the flag is pretty simple, the romans build some defences and they usually do what Romans do and man them, every so often a few Romans might try to go on the offence but they get beaten back most of the time, The Greeks on the other hand normally go on the offence and try get the flag from the other side and then return. Seeing as we were probably the toughest group on our team and Merry's abilities would be great for defence, we stayed back. On top of that, the romans don't really like having Nathan around all too much, he is a Roman who does things the Greek way but yet here us 3 were, bored out of our minds waiting. Suddenly, Merry perked her head up and look straight ahead of us, we got hidden but prepared, my dark red armour dull in the afternoon sun and gut-wrench at the ready, I sent a prayer to my father for success in this battle and waited for whoever it was to arrive. A minute and a half passed and I was about to get out of cover and tell Merry she misheard whatever she thought she heard when the noise of people failing at being stealthy could be heard. Me and Nathan looked at Merry as she showed all 10 fingers on her hand then 5 and then repeated it, after that she mouthed Roman and me and Nathan nodded in response, Nathan rubbed his arm on the spot of his tattoo that showed years of service but he gritted his teeth, he explained the night before that he hated fighting Romans, he might not be the poster boy for Rome but he was still loyal. I flashed a thumbs up and me and Nathan threw the flash grenades we had been given by the Hephaestus/Vulcan cabin at the enemies, when they exploded we ran out of cover clashing our weapons together and trying to disorient them even more before we got there. I saw Merry get there first and crash the shaft of her spear into one guys forehead knocking him out cold instantly, she simultaneously smacked her shield into the nose of another just as they regained their bearings knocking her out as well, finally she sent a brutal kick into a third guys stomach and brought the other knee up into his nose with a sickening crunch, my fathers blessing turning her into a deadly efficient warrior with all weapons. Nathan clashed into the group on the other side next, he delivered a vicious fist into a 14 year olds stomach and he started to roll on the floor with no intentions of getting up anytime soon but Nathan still kicked his weapon away to be safe, he plucked the overly large helmet off the kid though as he fell and put on his head then brought his forehead into the space between an eighteen year old girl who was rubbing her eyes, she went cross eyed after his forehead made contact and fell to the ground. He brought the hilt of his sword up and hooked it around another soldiers neck and threw him to the ground and simultaneously used the side of the his swords blade to pull another's legs out from under him so he fell back and hit his head on a spot of ground that suddenly had a lack of soft grass thanks to Nathan and sent a sharp kick to the head of the boy he hooked the handle on. I was impressed, he was far better then any of my siblings and I could see he definitely deserved the title of best swordsman in camp, I could only think what he would be like if he didn't have to worry about killing them, but anyways, time to show these guy what I could do. I had purposely walked towards the biggest clump of them, slowly so they had enough time to watch their friends get beaten by a blind girl and the Greek style Ceres kid, I let my axe slide down my hand and did a head count, 3 were down by Merry who had taken her glasses of and her eyes glowed the same colours as her snakes, red and green, and 4 by Nathan who had them at his feet and a mad grin adorning his face, that left 8, I smirked and got ready. I turned Gut-Wrench sideways and swung hitting one around the back of his head with the flat side of the blade, I moved in front of another with my back to her and slammed the base of my axe handle into her gut then flicking it into her face as she doubled over. I took a big step forwards to a big beefy guy who was clearly startled and spun him into another and hit there heads together, I heard a roar behind me and feet trampling the ground so I swept the shaft of my axe in a wide arc along the ground behind me tripping him up and as he fell forwards I left my boot heel behind me and kicked up so it caught him in the forehead knocking him out instantly. One more guy walked towards me with his gold gladius held out nervously so I smacked it out of his hand and brought my first down on top of his head leaving a fist shaped dent next to the plume of his helmet. As I turned to the last two they were both about 13 and looked like twins, their legs were shaking but I sighed knowing that they were Romans so they wouldn't run, but before I could knock them out I heard cheers coming from a ways back. I let out a chuckle and turned to Merry and Nathan and said "Guess we won guys, lets head back." They both nodded and Merry's eyes went back to normal, I turned to the last two kids and put on my best intimidating glare (which was probably very convincing) and snarled "Pick those weaklings up and tell them to send more next time" before we went back to camp and got our last good nights rest for a while.

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**Tried some combat for each character to give you guys an idea of what it will be like, oh yeah, I'm keeping Merry's batons as her signature weapons but lets be honest, you need a little bit more then two knives and two sticks, so I added a pointed stick into the fray. I hope her new gear sounds as cool as I imagined and couldn't really think of a way to say what her spear and stuff looked like so Greg and Marly vision ho! I did a bit of research as well into Greek and Roman monsters trying to find new stuff that hasn't been done in PJO so far, oh yeah, I haven't read House of Hades yet so the story wont be completely canon (I don't know who if anybody dies or doesn't die so I'll just wing that. From the sudden surge of Leo x Calypso fics I assume he goes to Ogygiiga or however you spell it, shame, I wanted him to save echo)**


	8. The prophet predicts our prophecy

**About time we get to the questing, that prophecy took me like half an hour to think up, I even had to download a rhyming dictionary. I have a few ideas but I just hope that they work as well as I hope they do, I did some research for a few monsters. Also, you may have noticed the picture for the story has changed, I did it myself on my ipad with an app called pro create (such a bad name 'cause you know, procreate means to reproduce) but it doesn't look too bad if I do say so myself.**

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**Chapter 7: The prophet predicts our prophecy**

**Nathan POV**

After the pounding we gave to the poor people who walked by our spot we jogged up the hill and chuckled at the the guys celebrating at the flag when they looked down the hill to see 2 kids helping up 13 downed centurions, I don't know why they weren't with their men like normal centurions but still, it's always nice to remind the others that the Cere's kid has got some moves. We walked past the command tent where a son of Zeus was with his trophy girlfriend, a daughter of Aphrodite, and two sons of Athena. As we were walking past them we didn't heed them any attention and carried on going when the Zeus kid called out to us "Hey, its customary to say thanks to the guy who got us our win isn't it!" This was followed by a chorus of cheers from the idiots and sudden silence from anyone with a braincell, I was just going to carry on going but got my hand ready just in case I needed my sword when Tristan started a fight but Merry bear him to it. "Of course I would but I'm afraid I don't know what those two sons of Athena's names are, what are they you two?" She asked calmly and clearly so everyone could hear, as soon as she said it everyone stopped, I turned my head and stood to the left of Merry as Tristan stood on her right and gave the two Athena kids a reassuring nod. "I-I'm B-Blake and he's A-Austin" the older one stammered as he cast a nervous look at the Zeus kids red face, "Why thank you Blake and Austin for creating an effective strategy while those two made out in the tent, I could hear them a mile off" she said cheerily with a sincere smile as a few, including me and Tristan, let out deep laughs. At this point a large circle had formed around us made up of both teams, Satyrs, wood nymphs and a few naiads from the creek who were strong enough to make it up the hill. "Look you three losers should be thanking me, I led this team to a win!" Said the Zeus kid a few cheers from some of the less evolved and more chimp like campers followed this but Merry didn't falter "From what I heard of your input into the strategy for today all you said was stick the three 'freaks' near the creek, then you even went as far as to get your girlfriend to message the other team and tell them to send their 'best' at us!" This was met by silence until the idiot spoke up again "Yeah so what? Who cares what happens to the blind bimbo, the blood freak and the outcast Roman, you aren't even allowed in the Roman part of you're cabin are you? All you Romans are losers, the only one of them who would even stand a chance against me is you cause you went Greek, admit it and I wont kick all of your asses!" I was about to get my sword out and spell my very choice words out to him when I saw a blur to my left and sighed "Tristan always the one for violence, cant blame him now though" I muttered as I turned right to look at Merry but I was met with Tristan's raised eyebrow. I looked back to the Zeus kid and cringed as I saw her swing one of her batons into his groin, it looked more like a blur just flew into there and heard two loud and sickening splat noises and what looked like blood stains through his jeans, as he fell to his knees Merry brought the baton in her left hand across his mouth and teeth flew out imbedding in the ground as she brought her knee into his nose flattening it as it burst like a ripe tomato. He raised his hands to cover what was left of his face and she brought both batons across his right hand in a scissor motion shattering his wrist and fingers simultaneously. His girlfriend shrieked what sounded like a cross between "You cant do that!" And "Please don't hurt me!" Merry disregarded both of them and threw her baton in the direction of the girl where it turned into a green snake that wrapped around her neck and tightened slightly until she fell unconscious. Merry then turned to the assembled crowd that had a face of fear, awe and enjoyment and said "Whoops, I couldn't see what I was doing but that sounded like a pretty nasty FALL guys, right?" She announced in a cheery tone that said if you don't agree you'll be joining them, she was met with a chorus of 'yep', even from the Zeus kid whose voice was quite a few octaves higher then before. She walked backed towards me and Tristan and we congratulated her on a job well done as we turned and walked back towards the cabins and prepared ourselves for lunch.

**Tristan POV**

I was nervously eating and half heartedly joining in on the conversation with Merry and Nathan, I glanced at my watch again, only 5 minutes left, I was glancing nervously at the top table, I was waiting and looking at my watch around my wrist waiting for when my Dad would get here, I thought about what he told me in my dream yesterday and remembered what he said.

**Tristan POV flashback start**

_ I opened my eyes and could see the flash of rifles being fired from the trench we were in, there was mud up to my shins along with dirty bandages, blood and the odd body part floating there, whichever battle he took me to must have had plenty of rain beforehand. I looked around and instantly saw someone who stood out quite a bit, I could just tell that we were in some trenches of WWI because of the uniforms. I walked over to a man in leather biker gear covered in knives and a few gun holsters with guns to boot strapped all over, he had a WWI rifle in one hand firing over the trench without even bothering to reload or look and the other hand was stroking his moustache in thought. I went to kneel before him but before I could he said "No need to kneel, this is a private conversation and it would be awkward so feel free to stand. However kid, we got way more important things to talk about, the whole fate of Olympus and all your loved ones kinda thing. Im gonna visit camp tomorrow when you lot are having dinner, make sure your ready because I'm bringing the prophet with me, you, you're girlfriend and the Roman kid are going to have to do something BIG!" At first my jaw dropped but then my ears went red and I muttered "She isn't my girlfriend..." as I rubbed my arm nervously and Ares turned to me and said "I just told you that Olympus could be destroyed and the only bit you care about is that I said she was your girlfriend, and why isn't she? If I could pull Aphrodite then I imagine it's in the blood, wait... Stop distracting me! Okay. Remember, oracle, dinner and why isn't she your girlfriend yet?" He finished with a cheeky grin and clicked his fingers ending the dream before I could give him a death glare._

**Tristan POV flashback end**

I looked at my watch and gulped nervously and got ready to move towards the top table, motioning for Nathan to tell Merry, who was too busy eating to use her sixth sense to sense I moved, to follow me and made my way over and knelt down a few feet away from the hearth, a few people looked at me funny but moved to bow as the hearths flame grew to around 7 foot tall and a man clad in leather came out holding the hand of a red haired women gingerly. He let go of her hand as soon as they stepped out of the crimson flame that instead of fire sounded like gunshots and explosions, "Lord Ares, Miss Dare, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?" Said Chiron politely but was quickly pulled into a friendly hug by Rachel, the oracle, "Good to see you Rachel, how is your home on Olympus?" Chiron said like a father who was welcoming their child home for the first time in a while. Rachel's eyes brightened but before she could start Ares cleared his throat and said "Unfortunately Chiron we have more important and graver things to discuss then the oracles house, a prophecy is to be issued, to my son!" He announced the last bit loudly and most of the dining pavilion gasped, the only ones who didn't were Ares, Rachel, Chiron, Tristan and the Zeus kid who couldn't move his mouth because of some medical equipment so he was drinking nectar through a straw, never mind the ice pack resting against his mangled jewels. I tensed up but nodded sternly, I looked up at Rachel and asked loudly "Oracle, what is the prophecy you have for me?" With a confident tone. Ares clicked his finger and a padded armchair appeared behind Rachel before green smoke poured from her mouth and her voice became a spine tingling and incredibly aged voice.

_Three shall travel south to reignite hopes flame  
Redeem the cursed warrior riddled with shame  
A journey to balance out the blood born heart  
To make peace with the dreaded counterpart  
The forgotten birds child lights the way  
Into the worlds next war torn day_

The room was deathly quiet before it erupted into argument as soon as Rachel's unconscious body fell into the chair and Ares sent her back to her home on Olympus. Before everyone could continue there senseless arguments about the prophecy Ares yelled "Quiet! Chiron, organise one of those council meetings you kids do so well, I need to relay the prophecy to the rest of the Olympians but before I go, my kid Tristan is leading the quest, no buts, and he WILL choose who he wants to, thats an order from an Olympian so get over it." I smirked and as Ares was about to leave a cocky voice called out "Lord Ares, how can HE lead a quest, him and his friends attacked ME a son of Zeus!?" I turned and saw the Zeus kid who by the looks of it drank enough nectar for his mouth and ego. I was about to call him out on a few things when my father beat me to it "You dare speak to me? You insulted you're allies after they protected the flag, beat back a larger force and did their job perfectly even though you left them there with the soul intention of getting injured and made fools of? Father had the council watch that game because you were the commander 'We will be able to see another successful child of the King of the Gods' he said, your a disgrace to every child of Zeus. Be grateful that we managed to stop Artemis going down there after the girl was done and ripping what was left of your mangled 'man'hood and choking you with it. Even Father said you got what you deserved, heck Hades almost sent the Fury's down to deal with you, so heres my suggestion, shut up before I tear your jaw off and take YOUR eyes out because lemme tell you, there are no medicine Gods to rush to you rescue!" The Zeus kid sat down with his mouth open, drooped shoulders and teary eyes as his 'girlfriend' moved away from him before anyone remembered they were together Merry spoke up and said "Thank you Lord Ares, my arms were tired and I didn't want to waste any more energy on him, also, can you send my father my thanks for my charms as well as Lord Apollo and Lady Artemis for their blessing, as well as yourself?" Ares responded surprisingly gently after his rant and said "Of course kid, use my blessing well." I looked up as Ares pointed a finger at me then her and gave a thumbs up then disappeared in flames. Chiron cleared his throat and sent the Zeus kid a glare and said "Dean, I expect a full explanation later of what happened and what was said, I will have Argentum and Aurum there to see if there are any 'mistakes' in your story, also you will not be needed at todays meeting so go back to your cabin, now. Cabin heads, Greek and Roman, meet in the war room in ten minutes, Tristan, bring the two who you want on the quest with you if you have already decided."

**Tristan POV, ten minutes later, War Room**

"Okay, everyone has heard the prophecy and now we need to try and decipher the prophecy, I believe I have an idea about the first line, hopes flame in previous quests and prophecies has usually meant the hearth but I have not heard any startling news related to any hearths of late. However, being a prophecy it may very well have an alternate meaning to it, does anyone else have any idea?" The Athena kid, Blake, raised his hand and said "What about this cursed warrior, friend or foe?" A few people raised their hand to speak but Nathan spoke up quickly "How are we supposed to know? Theres more then a few 'cursed warriors' throughout history. Hades, if he wasn't dead it could be Achilles for all we know, I want to know what it means by the 'next' war torn day, Percy Jackson already dealt with the Titans and giants, theres nothing left to fight for a few centuries?" The room was silent after this when Aron from the Poseidon cabin said "theres no point really questioning it, all we can really do is give you guys a good start and prepare for the worst, the good times were bound to end eventually." Everyone nodded in agreement, Aron was mature because unluckily for him he has to live in Percy's shadow, being a fellow son of Poseidon, but he handles it well and doesn't hold a grudge against anyone. Besides, if the camp had to vote for a leader that isn't Chiron it would probably be him so he isn't doing too badly. Chiron spoke up after the silence that fell and said "Thank you Aron, questers, go to your cabins and prepare yourselves, you depart first thing tomorrow after the Augur has divined as much information as he can and I make some Iris messages and talk to a few friends, council dismissed!" As everyone wet their separate ways I turned to my quest mates and said "We meet at the top of Half-Blood hill at dawn, bring drachmas, ambrosia, nectar the works, don't forget any spare weapons for mortals and monsters alike, okay?" Nathan made an 'uh huh' noise and walked to his cabin confidently, Merry however was shaking slightly and I could see a bit of sweat dripping from her brow. "Merry don't worry, we've trained plenty and your more then ready" I said in my softest and most reassuring voice, she replied shakily "What if I'm not, what if I get scared and I can't help you guys, what if you or Nathan get killed?" I hugged her tightly and said in a calm and soothing tone "Gods forbid anything happens we'll make sure everyone gets through it in one piece and come back heroes, if anything too serious happens just do what you did to the Zeus kid to them, kay?" She stepped back took a deep breath and nodded, when she walked past me she muttered quietly "Thank you for always being there ever since we met" and ran out quickly. My heart was going a 100 miles an hour, we had hugged before but never had such a heart to heart like that, I grinned like an idiot, almost giddy and went back to my cabin, putting on a straight face before I got through the door. No matter what happened she would not get killed, whether Olympus and then the world burned to the ground because of my actions I would not let her die.


	9. Monsters ahoy!

**Chapter 7: Monsters ahoy!**

**Merry POV**

As I jogged my way up the hill I could feel the morning sun on the back of my neck and arms, I was wearing a pair of jeans that if I remember correctly were black and a T-shirt that was probably red with my denim jacket. For the most part I wore these clothes just for the irony of the situation, wearing clothes similar to those I wore when I got to camp for the first time, but with any luck the hill wont be as dangerous this time. As I reached the top of the hill I basked in the sun and wondered aloud "Where are the other two? I know it's early but this is rude" as I rocked on my heels. "BOO!" "AHH! Not funny, you almost gave me a heart attack!" I squealed, I could hear Nathan failing miserably at retaining his laughter and I could practically smell Tristan's smile, before he could do something stupid again I said "Anyways, you guys kept me waiting, at least I have the decency to get her on time" in a smug tone. "Actually we were waiting for you" Nathan said after he regained his composure and put a reasonably serious voice on, "C'mon, we gotta go, fate of Olympus and what not" I nodded my head and walked towards his voice and said "Do we have any transport, and where are we going to first?" After a second Tristan responded with "Well, Chiron asked the Gods for a little bit of help but all they could say is that the key isn't in a city, even that much information could anger the fates so we cant expect any more information from them, me and Nathan were talking and figured that Texas would be good start if we have to go south, on top of that, if we don't know about it then it would have to be somewhere with very little to no people." I thought about it for a second while thinking, I was naturally good at geography being a child of Hermes and could remember plenty of places, on top of that with Ares, Artemis and Apollo's blessing I knew hot spots of conflicts in the past, good hunting grounds and music venues and the location of a few of Apollos favourite bars he... frequented, I shuddered at the thought. Suddenly my mind went green and I saw a sign that said "Welcome to Brewster County, Trans Pecos, Texas" as I looked at the sign, I heard the screams of a young girl in the distance and then it all went back to the normal darkness. My mind woke up before my body, I felt that I had fallen down on my butt and elbows, I felt my shoulders being rocked back and forth and voices saying "Merry, Merry you ok? Nathan go get Chiron, the quest can wait another day." That properly woke me up and I quickly sputtered "I'm fine, just had... well a vision I guess, I know where we have to go, don't worry about me, really, I'm fine." I heard Nathan let out a breath of relief an Tristan stand up, I held my hand up and he pulled me up easily and said "So then, where are we going?" I told them about my vision including the young girls scream and my face grew rigid with determination, "We have to hurry, that could have been a vision of the past, present or future, who knows what that little girl is going through now?" I said exasperated, "You wouldn't have been shown that if it wasn't to do with the quest so finding that girl is our first priority, one because we're nice people and two she might be linked to the quest" Nathan said but he sounded a little distracted. I nodded my agreement and Tristan said "Of course, c'mon, we got a girl to save, along with, you know, the world." We walked down the hill towards a van that Nathan said Argus had left behind when he was moved to the nursery and elementary school for demigods that was protected by some of the peaceful but powerful Titans that had been freed because of Percy Jacksons wish like Calypso and Leto and the Olympians also watched over it from Olympus. As we got into the van I had a sudden burst of hope from inside my heart, 'The Gods wouldn't let us fail no matter what, we have nothing to worry about, us three are arguably the best close quarters fighters in camp, we would be fine' I mused happily.  
That hope all but faded at the first monster attack.

CRUNCH! The air was full of screams from mortals and I was adding my thoughts to it, Nathan said he saw boulders and winged creatures flying through the air towards us, the rocks and creatures whisked mortals away in cars of the highway. Nathan was powering on in the van, Argus had apparently made some modifications to the van, instead of a creaky van that smelt of liquor, cigarettes and kleenex it was a van that smelt of liquor, cigarettes, kleenex and was plated with celestial bronze and imperial gold, Nathan said it would be able to shrug off a hyperborean giant landing on it, we unfortunately got to test that. Nathan quickly began calling out what was happening because me and Tristan didn't have any windows in the back of the van and I couldn't see end of, there were the winged creatures that weren't taking mortals, they were large 60 foot at maximum Drakons that were carrying Hyperborean giants, one giant to every two drakons, and dropping them onto the highway to crush, kill and destroy us. Unfortunately, one of the giants landed on the hood of the van so we did a full forwards flip and landed back on its wheels movie style, I heard Nathan let out a southern 'Yee Haw' noise and slam his foot on the accelerator, I could hear a few more dull thuds, I heard Tristan praying next to me "Lord Zeus, I believe it is time to call in that old debt, save the mortals and then were even, kay?" I for one thought Tristan went crazy talking to the King of Gods like that but suddenly I heard more thunder then I had ever heard before and something that sounded like an atom bomb, suddenly the road was bathed in light and the smell of ozone. I almost screamed "What was that, what about the mortals?" Tristan responded calmly "Don't worry, the lightning of his master bolt is infused with Celestial bronze, it doesn't harm mortals, that thunder before it was him charging the bolt and moving the few demigods out there to safety". I nodded dumbstruck then said "What did you mean Zeus owed you?" He waited a second before he said "Long story, I'll tell you when we get back to camp, something to look forward to when were done with this." I just nodded again and turned to Nathan, "how long until we arrive? All I can see is desert?" He responded instantly "Actually were almost there, another ten minutes and then we can-" he was cut off by something slamming into the vans front, again, but this time I heard the engine give out and tires pop, we all flew into the air and I blacked out.

**Nathan POV**

I recovered quickly from the crash, I'd been in worse, and looked for the source of the thing that somehow managed to crush the van, I have no idea how anything could do that but I was pretty shaken so I couldn't think straight. I saw Tristan groggily getting to his feet and looked around shocked, we were both still in shock and the Texas sun was blinding us, I heard Tristan calling for Merry but heard a loud shaking noise. I've heard that noise before, if I hadn't hit my head I'd be fine, c'mon Nathan stop being so weak. All of those thoughts were going through my mind when I heard that noise again but this time it was more distinct as my mind became clearer and sharper, after that though I heard a feminine laugh but it didn't sound like Merry's, it seemed amused at what it did but almost, sorry? I turned around and almost lost control of my bowels, "G-G-Gorgan!" I shouted and covered my eyes, I heard Tristan curse loudly and realised that he must have seen what I had. "Damnit! Why does everyone call me a Gorgon! There are other snake women other then Medusa you know! Argh, stupid demigods..." I heard the voice start mumbling about demigods, Hera and babies? I looked around for anything important but all I could see were cacti, dead plants and a sign off in the distance. I turned back and looked at the large figure before me, she was around 9 foot tall and the most distinguishing feature was the tail, at the end was a very large rattle the size of a car engine shaking rather, oddly... Almost in an attempt to be seductive, I wasn't too surprised, stupidity of men is a common weapon in a few monsters arsenal. The snakes tail was quite long and looked dark like it was tanned and had flecks of cream coloured scales and light brown. I looked up higher and saw that the snake tail eventually ended and it smoothly transitioned into tanned hips with hands placed on the sides, she was wearing a white tank top with a jacket over it that looked like what cowboys wear, but this one looked very authentic not like some I had seen over the years. I looked up further past the rather 'gifted' chest and at a slender neck, I couldn't see her face because it was hidden behind a cowboy hat that had a sheriffs badge on it and by the looks of it, it went with the jacket she was wearing, when she lifted her face I let out a small gasp. She had bright red, natural lips, a small chin and cheekbones that made her look like she couldn't stop smiling, a button nose small ears that I could barely see under her silky brown hair and brown eyes that looked caring, like a aunt, but hurt? I heard Tristan growl behind me and was confused till I looked at the spot of ground his eyes were fixed on. There at the feet (well bit of tail that was touching the ground) of the snake lady was Merry bound and gagged, I had to say I was disappointed, I was always soft when it came to women and this snake lady seemed nice. I looked at the snake lady and said "Look miss..." I stopped and realised I couldn't place this creature "Lamia" she said hesitantly, I sputtered and said "THE Lamia, the one who kidnapped kids and drank their blood? At camp they said you hadn't been seen in hundreds of years, that you had faded!" Lamias happy face turned into a scowl and said "I did no such things, ever, the spiteful cow, oh sorry 'Queen of Olympus', cursed me. Also, I would have faded but Hera always comes and tells me that she will give me a chance at a family, but she kills them after a year or two, then I cant fade because of the anger. All I wanted was a perfect little family, maybe a cat as well but noooo, I dared to catch 'Zeus's eye' I 'tainted his pure soul' so she cursed me and said that she'd make me so no man in their right mind would ever love me and only someone as cursed and as desperate as I would want to spend an eternity with me, but no one does. Im 'too violent!' or 'choking isn't an acceptable thing in b- oh sorry I was going on a rant" She said, her face practically glowing red in embarrassment. I felt sorry for her but it still didn't answer what I had intended to ask so I tried again. "Miss Lamia, why have you tied my friend up?" At this Lamia started blushing profusely again and played with her hair and said "To be honest with you, I always wanted a girl, I didn't realise she was with you guys, honest, I didn't even mean to hit you, my tail does it's own thing when I sleep, I woke up and she was unconscious. The gag is medicinal, it's coated in herbs and stuff, it's almost as good as nectar in terms of healing, but when it comes to taste..." She grimaced as if remembering it, "the ropes are so she didn't take the gag off, the ropes around the legs, well, it feels bad when people run away from you for no reason other then what you look like" she said with a sniffle but regained her composure. "She should be fine now so come and untie her, I'm sorry for causing any trouble, I truly didn't mean to, I wouldn't hurt children on purpose, I swear on the styx." She said with a apologetic and sad smile as she saw Tristan run over, I felt bad for her and there something else I needed to say so I walked over to her and told her to bring her head down so I could tell her something in private.

**Tristan POV**

I smiled ear to ear as I ran over to Merry, she looked fine, even her clothes were in good condition but she had a sour expression on her face, I gave a nod of thanks to Lamia and untied Merry's hands, as soon as she did she ripped the gag out so fast I was surprised she didn't take a tooth or two with her, and started coughing and spitting on the ground. I then untied her legs and helped her to her feet but I still supported her because her legs still wobbled a bit. I looked over to Lamia who was leant over a little so she was head hight with Nathan who was whispering something in her ear, her face went from shocked to happy followed by sad and finally a mix between hope and sympathy. I was going to say something when Merry spoke up "Thank you Lamia for your help, I know that it might be a little too much to ask for more help but can we see the girl I heard you talking to?" Lamia looked surprised by this but said "Of course, after everything that you have done for me letting you see her is the very least I can do" she said sincerely, but what did she mean everything we've done, I didn't really care though because this girl must be the one who screamed in Merry's vision. "However, I'm afraid you will have to do more then talk, she kept saying something about her only friend was dying, when she woke up she was too scared of me to tell me where her friend was. I know you are on a quest but you must help her" Lamia said sadly yet pleadingly, I had to feel bad for her, The Gods and Goddesses have a lot to answer for throughout history, especially when it comes to brining eternal pain, especially Hera, we went into the cave that Lamia signalled us into and mentally prepared myself for the next leg of the journey.


End file.
